RS

MEMBER DIARY

A deadly day in Afghanistan; I suppose only one question about it is unanswered

The Taliban stormed a base near the Pakistani border. 8 Americans were killed and many Afghanis on our side were killed or captured.

Insurgents stormed remote outposts in eastern Afghanistan killing eight Americans in the deadliest battle in more than a year near the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Sunday.
Afghan provincial authorities said they had lost contact with scores of Afghan policemen after the day-long attack on Saturday and did not know whether they were dead or alive. NATO said at least two Afghan soldiers were killed.
…
Militia from a local mosque and a nearby village launched the attacks on two joint NATO and Afghan outposts, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. The NATO troops in the area are American.

We need to read a bit further down to compile the unanswered question I mentioned.

NATO said its troops had inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers, but did not say how many.

(Taliban spokesman) Mujahid said seven Taliban were killed as a result of an air attack summoned by foreign troops during the 13 hours of battle. He said the Taliban attack included several suicide bombers, explosions and fighters storming the posts.

We’ve already announced this is an area we’re pulling out of. The only important thing that’s not clear from the article is that I certainly hope we didn’t do anything to the mosque that was part of the attack and that we killed no civilians in the air strike or if we shot back. That’s the only matter of importance in this whole story from the POV of the Obama administration.